Korea: Royal guard changing ceremony in Seoul

If you are visiting Seoul for the first time, and if you are interested by korean history, you should take the time to watch the royal guard changing ceremony. There is several places where you can attend to this daily event:

• Deoksugung Palace,(main entrance next to the City Hall Station)
• Gyeongbokgung Palace (also main entrance, next to Gyeongbokgung Palace Station)

I would advise you to go to Deoksugung Palace as the guards and the ceremony seems more beautiful there (uniforms and costumes are different, because of different period of reenacment) and also because Deoksugung is less touristic and crowed.

The whole ceremony is commented in english, and represents the royal guard changing in order to ensurethe protection of the main gate of the palace. You will find more detailed about the ceremony here.


I personnaly really appreciated this "show" as the reenacment was quite good and very interesting. Also, the palace in the backgroung and the colorful uniforms will give you beautiful pictures. You can also ask the guard to take a picture with him: lot of tourists do this and it can make a nice "souvenir" !

Just before winter (october/november), trees and leefs start to be orange and red, making the palaces gardens really amazing.

Of course, you can use the opportunity to visit the palace as well. Both of Deoksugung and Geyongbukung are interesting to visit (even if the first one is smaller, it's still my favorit however).